PROPORTION AND SCALE

Material Proportions
All materials have rational proportions which are
dictated by their inherent strengths and
weaknesses.

Structural Proportions
The size and proportion of structural elements are
directly related to the structural tasks they perform
and can therefore be visual indicators of the size
and scale of the spaces they help enclose.

Manufactured Proportions
Materials and building elements sized and
proportion by the process of manufacturing.

Proportioning Systems

Proportion
• The comparative, proper, or harmonious relation of one part to another or to the whole
with respect to magnitude, quantity, or degree.

• The equality between two ratios in which the first of the four terms divided by the second
equals the third divided by the fourth.

Ratio
The relation in magnitude, quantity, or degree between two or more similar things.

Eurhythmy
Harmony of proportion or movement.

Fibonacci Series, Fibonacci Sequence

The unending sequence of numbers where the
first two terms are 1 and 1, and each
succeeding term is the sum of the two
immediately preceding.

Harmonic Series
A series in which the terms are in harmonic
progression.

Harmonic Progression

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A sequence of numbers the reciprocals of
which form an arithmetic progression.

Scale
A certain proportionate size, extent, or degree,
usually judged in relation to some standard or
point of reference.

Human Scale
The size or proportion of a building element or space,
or an article of furniture, relative to the structural or
functional dimensions of the human body.

Mechanical Scale
The size or proportion of something relative to an
accepted standard of measurement.

Visual Scale
The size or proportion a building element appears to
have relative to other elements or components of
known or assumed size.

Module
A unit of measurement used for standardizing the
dimensions of building materials or regulating the
proportions of an architectural composition.

THEORIES OF PROPORTION
• The intent of all theories of proportions is to create a sense of order and harmony among
the elements in a visual construction.

• Proportion systems go beyond the functional and technical determinants of architectural

form and space to provide an aesthetic rationale for their dimensions.

• They can visually unify the multiplicity of elements in an architectural design by having all
of its parts belong to the same family f proportions.
• They can provide a sense of order in, and heighten the continuity of a sequence of
spaces.

• They can establish relationships between the exterior and interior elements of a building.

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GOLDEN SECTION (GOLDEN MEAN)
• A proportion between the two dimensions of a plane figure or the two divisions of a line,
in which the ration of the smaller to the larger is the same as the ratio of the larger to the
whole: a ratio of approx. 0.618 to 1.000.

a/b = b/a+b
• The Golden Section has some remarkable
algebraic and geometric properties that
account for its existence in architecture as
well as in the structures of many living
organisms.

• Any progression based on the Golden

Section is at once additive and geometrical.

• A rectangle whose sides are proportioned according to the Golden Section is known as a
Golden Rectangle.
o If a square is constructed on its smaller side, the remaining portion of the
original rectangle would be a smaller but similar Golden Rectangle.

APPLICATION OF THE GOLDEN SECTION

REGULATING LINES

The diagonals of two rectangles which are either parallel or perpendicular to each other that
indicate that the two rectangles have similar proportions, as well as the lines that indicate the
common alignment of elements.
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CLASSICAL ORDERS

• To the Greeks and Romans, the Orders represented in their proportioning of elements the
perfect expression of beauty and harmony.

• The basic unit of dimension was the diameter of the column.

o From this module were derived the dimensions of the shaft, the capital, as well
as the pedestal and the entablature above, the spacing between two adjacent
columns, down to the smallest detail.

• Standardized by Marcus Vitruvius Polio during the reign of Augustus in his The Ten Books
on Architecture.
o The rules were recodified by Vignola during the Renaissance.

RENAISSANCE THEORIES

The architects of the Renaissance, believing that their buildings had to belong to a higher order,
returned to the Greek mathematical system of proportions.

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 o The Greeks conceived music to be geometry translated into sound, Renaissance
architects believed that architecture was mathematics translated into spatial
units.
o Renaissance architects applied Pythagoras’s theory of means to the ratios of the
intervals of the Greek musical scale, and soon developed an unbroken
progression of ratios that formed the basis for the proportions of their
architecture.

7 Ideal Plan Shapes for Rooms by Andrea Palladio

• Paladio’s The Four Books on Architecture, he followed the footsteps of his predecessors,
Alberti and Serlio, and proposed the seven “most beautiful and proportionable manners of
rooms.

Circle Square 1: 2 3:4

2:3 3:5 1:2

“Beauty will result from the form and

correspondence of the whole, with respect
to the several pats, of the parts with
regards to each other, and of these again
to the whole; that the structure may
appear an entire and complete body,
wherein each member agrees with the
other, and all necessary to compose what
you intend to form.”

Andrea Palladio, The Four Books on

Architecture, Book 1, Ch. 1

Vila Capra, (the Rotunda), Vicenza, Italy, 1552-67

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MODULOR

• Le Corbusier’s own proportioning system developed in 1942 published as: The Modulor: A
HArmoniuos Measure to the Human Sale Universally Applicable to Architecture and
Mechanics. : to order “the dimensions of that which contains and that which is
contained.”

• He saw the measuring tools of the

Greeks, Egyptians, and other high
civilizations as being “infinitely
rich and subtle because they
formed part of the
mathematics of the human
body, gracious, elegant, and
firm, the source of that
harmony which moves us,
beauty.”

• He based the Modulor on both

mathematics (the aesthetic
dimension of the Golden Section
and the Fibonacci Series), and the
proportions of the human body
(functional dimensions).

• He saw it not merely as a series of

numbers with an inherent harmony,
but as a system of measurements
tat could govern lengths, surfaces,
and volumes, and “maintain the
human scale everywhere.” It
could “lend itself to an infinity
of combinations; it ensures
unity with diversity, the
miracle of numbers...”

• The principle work of Le Corbusier that exemplified the use of his system was his Unite
d’Habiatation at Marseilles,
o It used 15 measures of the Modulor to bring human scale to a biding that is 140
m long, 24 m wide, and 70 m high.

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 Section of Typical Apartment Unit, Unite d’Habitation, Marseiles, 1946-52, Le Corbusier

KEN

• The traditional Japanese unit of measure, the shaku, was originally imported form China.

• Originally used simply to designate the interval between two columns and varied in size, it
was soon standardized for residential architecture and became an absolute measurement.

• Aside as a measurement system, it evolved into an aesthetic module that ordered the
structure, materials, and space of Japanese architecture.

• Two methods of designing with the Ken modular method:

o Inaka-ma Method
 The ken grid of 6 shaku determined the center-to-center spacing of
columns.
 Therefore, the standard tatami floor mat (3 x ^ shaku or ½ x 1
ken) varied slightly to allow for the thickness of the columns.

o Kyo-ma Method
 The floor mat remained constant (3.15 x 6.30 shaku) and the
column spacing (ken module) varied according to the size of the
room and ranged from 6.4 to 6.7 shaku.

• The size of the room is designated by the number of its floor mats.
o The traditional floor mat was originally proportioned to accommodate two
persons sitting or one person sleeping.

o As the ordering system of the ken grid developed, however, the floor mat lost its
dependence on human dimensions and was subjected to the demands of the
structural system and its column spacing.

o Floor mats can be arranged in a number of ways for any given room size
because of their 1:2 modularity.

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 3-mat room 4 1/2 –mat room 10-mat room

• In a typical Japanese residence, the ken grid orders the structure as well as the additive,
space-to-space sequence of rooms.

o The relatively small size of the module allows the rectangular spaces to be freely
arranged in linear, staggered, or clustered patterns.

ANTHROPOMETRY
• The measurement of the size and
proportions of the human body. This
proportioning method seeks not abstract or
symbolic ratios, but functional ones.

• This is predicated on the theory that forms

and spaces in architecture are either
containers or extensions of the human body
and should therefore be determined by its
dimensions.

• The difficulty with this method is the nature

of the data required for its use.
o The dimensions given in millimeters
are average measurements and are
merely guidelines which should be
modified to satisfy specific user
needs.

o Average dimensions must always be treated with caution since variations from
the norm will always exist due to though difference between men and women,
among various age and racial groups, even from one individual to the next.

Ergonomics (Human Engineering/)

-Human Factors in Design
An applied science concerned with the characteristics
of people that need to be considered in the design of
devices and systems in order that people and things
will interact effectively and safely.

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Structural Dimension
Any of the dimensions of the human body and its
parts.

Functional Dimension
Any of the dimensions determined by bodily position
and movement, as reach, stride, or clearance.

Static Fit
The correspondence between the size and posture of a
human body and a building element or article of
furniture.

Dynamic Fit
The correspondence between the sensory experience
of bodily presence and movement and the size and,
shape, and proportion of a space.

Barrier Free
Of or pertaining to space, buildings, and facilities fully
accessible and usable by al people, including the
physically handicapped.

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